Shadow Falls Without a Trace

"Damn it! They're tough! Give me all your cursed energy!"

The lead curse user went pale, finally realizing he had kicked an iron plate.

He roared madly, raising all ten fingers and pressing his palms together, forming a lotus hand seal.

The two Grade 2 curse users behind him did not dare hesitate. Gritting their teeth, they formed the same seal and, through their technique connection, poured every last drop of cursed energy into the largest octopus shikigami—the main force that had remained in the rear.

As that immense cursed energy flowed in, the two curse users' bodies rapidly shriveled and withered. In the end, they collapsed limply to the ground like paper cutouts drained of water, completely unconscious.

The core octopus shikigami, having absorbed the full power of its two companions, swelled wildly. Countless barbs erupted from its formerly slick skin, and its body instantly grew to nearly four meters tall. The cursed energy it radiated was forcibly elevated to the threshold of Grade 1!

An eerie green glow faintly gleamed at the tips of its tentacles. That was the shikigami's special ability—"Deep-Sea Venom."

This poison was vicious and highly neurotoxic. Even a Grade 1 sorcerer would suffer paralysis over half their body within seconds if they were careless enough to touch it, left at the mercy of others.

Of course, such a deadly toxin meant for flesh and blood was completely useless against shikigami made purely of cursed energy.

"I've survived twenty years in the black market! I'm not like you greenhouse brats! Die!" the lead curse user roared madly.

"Go." Lu Ping stood in the back and spat out a single word without expression.

His face was somewhat pale.

Maintaining Shadow Wolf's [Crimson Shadow Form] came at a tremendous cost. Not only were there strict environmental restrictions, but while it was active, the cursed energy reinforcement on his actual body dropped by around forty percent, all of it redirected to sustain the shikigami.

Even so, he could currently maintain Crimson Shadow's unstable enhanced form for no more than three minutes.

So he had to end this quickly!

"Boom—!!"

The two colossal beings, both at the threshold of Grade 1, slammed violently into each other before the ruins of the old cinema.

However, the anticipated evenly matched battle never appeared.

Even among quasi-Grade 1 opponents, there were differences. And the overwhelming gulf in technique performance was an insurmountable chasm!

Though the giant octopus shikigami's attacks were immensely powerful, its countless tentacles trying to trap Crimson Shadow like a cage, Crimson Shadow stood within the [Blood Mist Domain]. For every second the octopus remained in the domain, a portion of its cursed energy was invisibly drained away.

What was even more unfair was that Crimson Shadow was connected to Lu Ping as a "transfer station," while Lu Ping, through the Three Corpses, was continuously devouring massive amounts of negative emotions from the hundreds of thousands of panicked civilians around them as if at an all-you-can-eat buffet!

As long as the surrounding negative emotions were not exhausted, Crimson Shadow's energy was virtually limitless in the short term!

"Riiip—!!"

Brutality filled Crimson Shadow's six scarlet vertical pupils. It allowed several tentacles to coil tightly around its body, then seized the giant octopus's head with its long wolf claws and tore with all its might!

Black cursed residue mixed with foul-smelling fluid splattered everywhere.

The giant octopus let out a pained wail. Under Crimson Shadow's frenzied tearing, empowered by the "Blood Corpse Digestion" attribute, its body grew smaller and smaller as the blood mist and claws on Crimson Shadow's body ravenously eroded and devoured the energy within it.

In barely thirty seconds, the once-imposing giant octopus had been torn apart by Crimson Shadow into a shriveled, empty shell.

"It's over."

Lu Ping spoke coldly.

Crimson Shadow understood immediately. Its enormous red wolf claw descended with the force to split mountains and shatter stone!

"Bang!!"

With a sharp crack, the quasi-Grade 1 shikigami that had condensed the life's work of three Grade 2 curse users did not even have time to self-destruct before Crimson Shadow smashed it apart with one claw. It turned into a lifeless puddle of ordinary water that quickly spread across the ground.

The backlash struck, and the two curse users lying in the distance, already reduced to "paper people," vomited blood on the spot and fell into complete shock.

The entire battlefield sank into deathly silence in an instant.

Only the blazing white Jujutsu High signal flare in the night sky continued to cast its cold light over the wreckage littering the ground.

Stepping through the water and cursed residue, the three-meter-tall Crimson Shadow slowly turned its head. Its six dark crimson vertical pupils locked emotionlessly onto the last curse user still standing—the leader, whose face had gone white with terror.

With every step it took, a crimson claw print marked with scorched black traces was left in the ground, like a countdown from the reaper.

"N-No... impossible... This is absolutely impossible..."

The white-robed leader's legs shook violently. His teeth clattered incessantly from extreme fear.

As an experienced curse user who had operated in the shadows for many years, he had witnessed countless strange and bizarre techniques.

But now, as he watched this scarlet giant wolf summoned from shadows display terrifying performance that utterly crushed shikigami-based techniques...

A deeply buried legend from the oldest and bloodiest corners of the jujutsu world suddenly flashed through his mind like lightning.

It was the ultimate myth of shadows and monsters, the only power that had once been able to challenge the foremost of the Three Great Families—and even confront that strongest family of jujutsu sorcerers head-on—during the Heian Era over a thousand years ago.

Trembling, he raised a finger toward Lu Ping. His voice cracked completely from sheer terror as he shrieked:

"A monster that manipulates shadows like this... such overwhelming technique performance... Th-this couldn't be... the supreme technique of the Zenin Clan, one of the Three Great Families, lost for years—the technique capable of summoning the strongest shikigami—

[Ten Shadows Technique]?!"

Lu Ping did not answer. He merely stood quietly in the shadows, cold moonlight falling across his indifferent face. "Do it."

Without hesitation, Crimson Shadow extended its scarlet claws and smashed them down, driving the curse user into the ground like a whack-a-mole target and rendering him completely unconscious.

However, before Lu Ping could finish dealing with the leader who had lost all will to fight, an indescribably intense sense of danger suddenly exploded from the base of his spine without warning!

"Drip."

From the direction of the warehouse behind the shrine, where flames surged into the sky, the sound of footsteps crunching through rubble slowly rang out.

A terrifying cursed energy signature, far greater, colder, and filled with purer killing intent than that quasi-Grade 1 cursed spirit, was hurtling through the billowing smoke toward the commercial street battlefield at an astonishing speed!

The other group of curse users had clearly finished the ritual at the warehouse and was now moving in to surround them.

At the same time, the red glow on Crimson Shadow's forehead—the symbol of the fusion countdown—began to flicker faintly.